Who the hell is Marcel Lefebvre?

Demanarchie, Vol. 3, no. 2, February 1997

Right-wing Catholics continue to play an important role in
the Quebec fascist milieu. In fact, along with "French Canadian"
nationalism, traditional Roman Catholicism is one of the defining
features of the far-right in this province.

Some reactionary Catholics in Quebec have even split from
the Vatican, which they view as being too moderate. These
schismatics - the term literally means "splitter" - work within
international networks that include racists and fascists from
Europe and the United States.

TO THE RIGHT OF JOHN PAUL II?

Pope John Paul II, president-for-life of the Roman Catholic
Church, is widely viewed as being favourable to that faith's
right-wing. He has made a point of publicly re-affirming his
church's opposition to women's rights, queer rights and the
rights of the dispossessed. Yet to some Catholics, the pope is
being manipulated by the enemies of the church; to his less
charitable critics on the right, he is a conscious minion of the
Antichrist, who has overseen the continuing takeover the
Christianity by an evil cabal of Jews, Freemasons and Communists.

These Catholics believe that the church was taken over by
pro-communist, Jewish, Protestant, Zionist, Satanic, and/or
Freemason forces at a series of meetings of all the world's
bishops known as the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, that
ran from 1962 to 1965. It was at these meetings that Roman
Catholicism toned down its age-old war of attrition against the
world's other religions and attempted to bring several of its own
rites up to date. Among other things, the mass that had been
elaborated at the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563, known
as the Tridentine Mass, was changed and the use of languages
other than Latin was approved.

In the 1970s and early eighties, those Catholic hardliners
who looked back fondly on the days of the inquisition were active
in a variety of organizations, the most prominent of them all
being the Society of St Pius X.

The history of the Society is inseparable from that of its
late founder, Bishop Marcel Lefebvre. Active in the theocratic
organization Cite Catholique in the 1960s, Lefebvre felt called
upon to denounce and resist the changes brought about by Vatican
II. Most hated were decrees that grudgingly accepted people's
freedom of conscience and that raised bishops' status, mandating
the creation of national bishops' organizations which brought
about a degree of decentralization within the church and reduced
the power of a clique of conservative Italian mandarins who had
become dominant within the Vatican.

Pope Paul VI, blamed by Lefebvre for the changes in the
church, was eager to appease the reactionary cleric, so in 1970
he was granted permission to found his Society in Econe,
Switzerland. Rather than calming him down though, this seemed to
encourage Lefebvre in his attacks against what he called
"modernist" errors coming out of Rome. Things escalated in 1976
when Lefebvre accused the Catholic hierarchy of heresy. His
Society was officially banned, and he was forbidden from
ordaining students studying at its seminary. When he ignored this
ban and ordained them anyway, the Pope hit him with a suspens a
divinis - a punishment that meant he could no longer give
sacraments or celebrate mass.

Around the world Lefebvre's supporters rallied around him,
often refusing to say the mass as it was elaborated during
Vatican II but rather hearkening back to the old Tridentine rite.
Priests who celebrated the old mass were often kicked out of
their churches by the local bishop.

When John Paul II became pope he tried to bring the
traditionalists back into the fold. He passed a special rule
allowing mass to be said according to the old custom as long as
the local bishop gave his permission. This did tempt many
Catholics back to the church but Lefebvre remained independent.
The mass was just a symbol for him: he didn't want the church to
tolerate him, he wanted the church to return to its old burn-
them-at-the-stake intolerant self.

In 1987 the Vatican appointed Canadian Cardinal Edouard
Gagnon as a mediator - a decision that thrilled the Lefebvrists,
who claimed that of all the cardinals Gagnon was the most
sympathetic to their cause. But while he did come close, Gagnon
was finally unable to broker an agreement between Lefebvre and
the pope. The former was convinced that the Freemason-Satanist-
Pinko-Jews had taken over, and he was not willing to surrender
his Society's autonomy. In 1988 he took four of the Society's
priests and turned them into bishops - despite having been warned
to do no such thing by John Paul. He was excommunicated almost
immediately.

OUTSIDE OF THE CHURCH

By this point Lefebvre had already acquired a large
following among right-wing Catholics who cared little what the
Vatican might say. His organization controlled hundreds of
churches, residences, and schools in several dozen countries, and
had acquired financial support from remnants of Europe's old
aristocracy.

The Society had also earned a good reputation amongst
butchers and fascists around the world. Always the man of
principle, Lefebvre had spoken out in favour of military
dictatorships in Africa and South America. Way back in 1976,
during a fiery mass in Lille, France, Lefebvre identified the
enemy: "The Council (Vatican II) consummated the marriage between
Church and Revolution... only bastards will be born of the
adulterous union ... We cannot dialogue with freemasons and
communists, because you don't dialogue with the Devil!" There is
plenty of evidence of what the bishop would like to do with
communists and freemasons though; at Lille that day he also
shared his views on the Argentinian dictatorship which was at
that very moment torturing and executing anyone even suspected of
being a "subversive". Lefebvre said that this bloodthirsty regime
was a "principled government of order, an authority that is
tidying things up, that stops cutthroats from killing people.
Suddenly the economy is getting better and the workers have work
and they can go home knowing that they won't be attacked by
someone who wanted them to go on strike when they didn't want to
go on strike." [1]

Lefebvre not only supported fascism in the Third World, but
actively promoted it in Europe, too. The Spanish translation of
his book "I Accuse the Council," was launched at the headquarters
of the New Forces Party - a Francoist fascist party. At this
event Lefebvre was accompanied by Blas Pinar, the NFP's
president. [2] During the 1985 French election campaign Lefebvre
publicly encouraged Catholics to vote for Jean-Marie Le Pen,
explaining that his ideal was "a government that applies real
Catholic principles, like Franco and Salazar did." Need it be
added that these statements were made in an interview he gave to
the Italian magazine Secolo - the organ of the MSI, Italy's
oldest fascist party. [3]

At no point did Lefebvre tone down the rhetoric. He merely
became more and more explicit. In 1986 he criticized the pope's
meeting at Assise with leaders from the world's other religions,
which he said "encourages the false religions to pray to their
false gods." [4] In 1989 he warned a gathering of traditionalists
about Moslem immigrants, saying that "It is your wives, your
daughters, your children who will kidnapped and brought to those
secret places like in Casablanca." [5] In 1990, less than a year
before his death, he claimed in an interview with the official
magazine of the National Front that any Catholic opposition to
the maintenance of a nun's residence at the former Auschwitz
concentration camp was being instigated by Jews. [6]

IN QUEBEC

While the Society of St Pius X is most active in Europe, it
maintains residences and churches in over 40 non-European
countries, including most of the Americas. The headquarters of
the Society's Canadian branch have been located in Shawinigan
since the 1970s. There are 26 Lefebvrist churches in Canada,
eight of which are in Quebec. There are roughly a dozen priests
active within the Society in Quebec. The Society also runs a
primary and high school, l'ecole Saint-Famille. [7] According to
Fr. Jacques Emily, the Lefebvrist's Canadian leader since 1983,
roughly 1000 people regularly attend mass at the Society's
churches, and the group receives donations from three or four
times as many people across the country.

While these small numbers show that the Society has little
direct impact on the official Roman Catholic church, and they
certainly have little effect on the larger body politic, the
Lefebvrists nevertheless remain wed to the far-right. And in
Quebec, where the far-right tends to be unanimous in its
Catholicism and hostility to Vatican II, the Society has been
able to maintain some presence outside of its own small circles.

Furthermore, the Society has occasionally made headlines
with its public declarations so much out of sync with Quebec
society in general and mainstream Catholicism in particular that
they are difficult to ignore. In 1989, for instance, one of the
Society's four bishops, Richard Williamson, delivered a
virulently racist sermon while touring Quebec. Williamson, who
runs a Lefebvrist seminary in Winona, Minnesota, was speaking at
Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes church in Sherbrooke when he stated that
"Not one Jew was killed in the gas chambers. It's a lie... the
Jews invented the Holocaust so that we would kneel before them
and accept their state of Israel... the governments don't touch
the Jews but they persecute the Zundels who fight for the truth."
[8] When a complaint was lodged under the hate laws, the RCMP
found that there was no basis to charge Williamson because he
"wasn't inciting violence". The bishop himself was unapologetic,
claiming that "The church is going badly because of the
Protestants, the Freemasons, the Communists, the media and the
Jews.... I don't believe that 6 million Jews were killed (in the
Holocaust), it's a physical impossibility." [9]

THE CERCLE D'ETUDES DES JEUNES CATHOLIQUES TRADITIONALISTES

The Lefebvrists do not simply stew in their own theological
juices, but engage in a certain degree of outreach amongst other
Catholics. Probably towards this end, in June 1993 the Society
set up a study group at Laval University in Ste-Foy, the Cercle
d'etudes des jeunes catholiques traditionalistes. The CEJCT
organized lectures by far-right luminaries from Canada, Europe
and the United States, many of which took place on the university
campus, until its pastor, Fr. Roscoe, left for Switzerland in
1995. While it was functioning, the Cercle benefited from a
degree of aid from the university's chaplaincy services, i.e.
free meeting space, photocopies, typing plus the prestige of
being able to use University symbols on its propaganda.

For your personal edification, what follows is a partial
list of people who spoke at CEJCT events between 1993 and 1995
(an asterisk indicates that the individual is also the author of
one or more articles in the CEJCT's newsletter Carillon
Catholique):

Michel Berger, a retired admiral, is a leading light with
Action Familiale et Scolaire, itself a front for Ictus,
perhaps France's most powerful reactionary Catholic
organization. [10] Its goal is to encourage the growth of a
political Catholic movement, with the eventual goal of
rolling back all of the social gains that have been made
since Marie Antoinette lost her head in the French
Revolution. Needless to say, leading members of Ictus,
including de Lassus, have made sympathetic comments about
the National Front; like Lefebvre they see it as Catholics'
best bet in the French elections. Berger tours Quebec with
Baron de Lassus (see next) about once a year, regularly
speaking in Church's and religious establishments in
Sherbrooke, Montreal and Drummondville. [11] AFS has
published books about how dangerous Moslems are, as well as
about how the Church was very nice to native people in North
America during the conquest of this continent.

Baron Arnaud de Lassus*, the leader of Action Familiale et
Scolaire (see above). [12] De Lassus is an "expert" on
freemasonry, which he characterizes as a fanatical anti-
Catholic conspiracy that works in alliance with Jews. [13]
Although he has remained loyal to the Vatican, he shares
Lefebvre's view that the National Front is Catholics' best
bet in the French elections (as do many other loyal
Catholics, it should be said). [14]

Bernard Lugan, who in 1993 was a member of the National
Front's scientific council. [15] Lugan has also lectured at
the Centre Charlier, [16] a Catholic centre in France
founded in 1979 by brothers Andre and Henri Charlier. Great
admirers of Charles Maurras, the Charlier brothers' intend
their centre to be a starting point for a "Christian and
national counter-offensive against the genocide that is
afflicting France and the French." [17]

Fr. Lorans, a European official of the Society. In 1988 he
stated that "Le Pen stands for principles that are similar
to ours... as to his understanding of abortion, it is the
same as Lefebvre's." [18]

Louis-Michel Guilbault*, the editor of (and author of almost
all the articles in) Le Lys Blanc, an opinionated magazine
from Sorel. Typical articles of his deal with the history of
the French aristocracy (he is an ardent monarchist), the
supposed connections between Freemasonry and Jewish
organizations like B'nai B'rith, the reasons why fascism is
a good political system as long as it doesn't turn pagan,
and "the correct attitude for Catholics to hold towards
Jews" (answer: be on your guard!). I can't decide which is
my favourite, his one anti-Nazi article (it was a pagan
movement led by Jews and thoroughly anti-Catholic) or a
hagiography of Adrien Arcand, the leader of Canada's Nazi
movement in the 1930s (but presumably not himself a Jewish
pagan)...

Jean-Claude Dupuis*, for the past three years the leading
light in the Cercle Jeune Nation, Quebec's most well-known
"intellectual" fascist group. Dupuis was the editor of the
Cahiers de Jeune Nation from its first issue in 1993 up
until its last in 1995. [19] He has written favourably about
Le Pen on several occasions, and is known to work closely
with Pierre Trepannier, the University of Montreal's
resident pro-fascist historian, and the clerical-fascist
Ralliement Provincial des Parents de Quebec. Dupuis is also
a member of the racist Centre d'information nationale Robert
Rumilly [20] and has worked with this group to organize
speaking engagements for Arnaud de Lassus and Michel Berger
across the province. [21] Dupuis and other members of Cercle
Jeune Nation have also spoken at the Society of Pius X's
Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes Church in Sherbrooke.

Gerry Matatics, an American loose cannon presently
vacillating between official Catholicism and outcast
traditionalist groups like the Society. Matatics was once a
Presbyterian minister well known for his attacks on the
Catholic Church but since his conversion in 1986 he has been
an ardent promoter of the most reactionary Catholic
inanities, and has recently been flirting with those tiny
traditionalist groups that see even the Lefebvrists as being
too moderate! [22]

Thomas Molnar*, a university professor from Brussels.
Exceptional for Catholic fascists, Molnar even collaborated
with the Groupement de recherche et d'etudes sur la
civilisation europeenne (GRECE) and wrote a book with the
latter's founder Alain de Benoist. [23] It should be noted
that most GRECists are anti-Christian, believing Jesus-
worship to be too tainted with non-European influences like
egalitarianism and pacifism (!) and preferring a kind of
virile racist paganism. [24] Molnar is also on the editorial
board of Present, [25] a French fascist newspaper. When he
addressed the CEJCT in 1994 his lecture was also printed in
the Cahiers de Jeune Nation.

Claude Polin*, a professor at the Sorbonne who is active in
anti-communist and monarchist groups in France. Polin has
also spoken at several conferences organized by the Cercle
Renaissance [26] and the Institut d'Etude de la
Desinformation, [27] two ultra-conservative organizations
whose membership includes leading members of the European
Christian Right, as well as retired military officers and a
certain number of officials from the National Front and
similar parties. Indeed, Polin is himself a member of the
National Front's scientific council. [28]

Fr. Marcel Nault, an occasional contributor to The Fatima
Crusader magazine. [29] This publication is full of
conspiracy theories and reprinted articles from John Birch
Society publications. Its assistant editor Father Paul
Leonard has also had his writings printed in Carillon
Catholique. [30]

Jean Viguerie, a professor at the University of Lille who
has worked with Action Familiale et Scoalire as well as the
Centre Charlier and its affiliate, the Centre Montmauriol.
[31]

Ibid. One year later, at the ordination of thirteen new
Lefebvrist priests in Econe, Williamson praised what he
called Lefebvre's "beautiful racism" which was going to
"create a new race of priests." (Agence France-Presse, 30
juin 1990)

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